


Please, Don't Leave

by straeon



Category: Emmerdale, robron
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-18
Updated: 2015-03-18
Packaged: 2018-03-18 11:20:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3567758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/straeon/pseuds/straeon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aaron contemplates leaving the village after the affair with Robert is blown.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Please, Don't Leave

**Author's Note:**

> For a prompt of 'please, don't leave'.

Aaron looked Robert up and down – this was probably the furthest Robert had been from keeping himself together in public, at least that Aaron had seen. He looked away and back to his luggage before he started feeling anything for him. Or anything more.

“I can't stay here,” Aaron said with a shrug. “That's down to you, innit?”

“Then let me make it right,” Robert pleaded, placing a hand on his shoulder, which Aaron immediately shrugged away.

“You can't.”

There had already been enough attempts on all fronts. That was what eventually made Aaron decide that he had to leave. At least until it had all blown over. Robert had tried dealing with Lawrence and Chrissie but it had failed and Aaron couldn't deal with seeing his family and closest friends affected by their stupid actions. Even when they tried to not blame Aaron, at least not to his face considering how this had all affected his mental health, Aaron felt like there was a hidden resentment. Whether he was imagining it, he couldn't really tell. But he needed to get away from looking at his loved ones and wondering how much they were ashamed of him, how much they hated him for what he'd done and his weakness in the aftermath.

“You can't leave me,” Robert said hoarsely.

“Because you've been here for me through all this?” Aaron demanded, raising his voice more than he'd intended.

“I have when I could.” There was a hint of emotion in his voice that Aaron had to turn away from.

“That's not enough,” Aaron said, shaking his head, trying to shake away any sympathy he felt. 

“I've tried,” Robert said forcefully, holding onto Aaron's arm. “And I'll try to do better. I promise.”

“It's too late!”

From the crushed look on Robert's face, Aaron knew he'd hurt him. A part of him was glad he could make him feel something, especially something he'd made Aaron feel countless times. But that he immediately regretted. They'd both fucked up in different ways and hurt each other when they shouldn't have, even if they hadn't always meant to.

That was the other reason he needed to get away though. Aaron would always go back to him if he was around him, even though this relationship wasn't good for either of them.

He walked away from Robert.

 

It was just getting worse and worse. When Robert thought he'd dealt with most of the shit he'd probably caused himself, this happened. He was trying to right everything that he could. His apology to Chrissie for hurting her had been entirely genuine – he'd never wanted to hurt her, he never would want to.

But at much as he didn't intend to hurt people, that was the end result, whenever he got a kind of tunnel vision where all he saw was how to get what he wanted. How it might affect other people often didn't even come into it. Even everything he'd done recently to try to make it up to them – was it for them at all, or simply because he needed some people on his side? Because he felt better if he made up for the shit he'd done, instead of ever having considered _not_ doing the things that had a negative impact on other people?

Maybe Aaron would be better off away from someone like him.

Robert sat down and accepted his fate. This was all what he'd brought on himself – to be ruined by Lawrence, hated by Chrissie, judged by most of the village and abandoned by the people he loved.

 

“Are you sure about this, love?” Chas asked her son in a concerned voice, going in for yet another hug.

“Yeah,” was his answer. As Aaron looked around the pub, at Adam and Victoria, Cain and Moira, so many people he'd come back to be with, his eyes welled up.

“Look, you don't have to do this, mate,” Adam told Aaron with a hand on his shoulder.

“Yeah, I do.” Their eyes met and a look of understanding passed between them, an understanding that unconditional best friends had.

After more farewells, he tore himself away, prepared to leave the life he'd become comfortable with here again. Not that he could comfortably live it lately anyway.

“This isn't just to get away from Robert, is it?” Paddy asked Aaron closely as he put his luggage in the cab.

“What? No!” Aaron said with emphasis. “You know what it's about.”

Paddy gave a drawn out sigh, entirely in his paternal role to Aaron now. “If it's about us, don't. Chas and me, we'd go through anything for you.”

“I know that,” Aaron said. “But you shouldn't have to, not over and over again.”

“Don't,” Chas practically shouted at them as she walked to the taxi, having overheard Aaron's last words. “This is not your fault! It's those bleedin' Whites – if anyone should be leaving, it should be them, hopefully dragging that no good adulterer off with them.”

Aaron grimaced and put his hand up over his eyes to pass it off as the sun in his eyes. Chas seemed to forget in her hatred for Robert that he had been a part of the cheating too.

“I mean it and don't defend him after all this.. mess,” Chas continued. By now, Aaron had given up on changing her opinions of him, especially since a lot of this time, he wasn't even sure of his own feelings. Robert wasn't an easy man to love. But still, Aaron understood what he'd done, in a way.

“So, you're okay?” Paddy broke in finally. “You have somewhere to stay and-”

“Yeah, yeah,” Aaron assured him. “I'll miss you-”

Paddy pulled him into a tight hug before he could finish the sentence.

“But it won't be for long,” Aaron said, muffled against Paddy.

“It better not be!” Chas said. “We'll – We'll see ya,” she finished tearfully. Aaron understood that she would worry when the next time she'd see him really was. Plus, how he'd be alone, even as he'd reassured her constantly that he could take care of himself, as he had been doing.

Finally, they parted, with not too much emotion. Adam and Victoria also came to say one last goodbye then went back in the pub, as Aaron slid into the back of the cab with just Chas left waving him way. A feeling of doubt overwhelmed him for a moment but he had to do this. And he wasn't just running away, they'd be better off if he was gone.

When the taxi started moving steadily, he knew it was too late to go back, which was a relief to have the decision made for good.

Until there was a banging on the side of the vehicle, with the sound of someone shouting “Stop!” Which they did as the driver swore and grumbled something about this village always being too dramatic.

“What the fuck?!” Aaron yelled, getting out to see Robert with his hands on the front of the car, breathing heavily.

“I'm sorry – I couldn't-”

“Are you trying to kill my son now too?!” Chas's voice demanded from a short distance behind them.

“Aaron,” Robert breathed as he stepped in front of him, looking him in the eyes and placing his hands around him. That always made Aaron feel like they were the only people in the world. “Please.”

“I-” Such a strong part of him wanted to just give in. But they weren't the only people who mattered. He broke the gaze with Robert

“I ha-”

“No, you don't,” Robert said with force. “You don't have to do this.”

“Why?” Aaron asked, getting frustrated now.

“Because you don't have to punish yourself like this,” Robert said more softly, looking into Aaron's eyes – who looked away again. “This doesn't help anyone, you only think we'll be better of without you.”

Aaron huffed, about to tell him, for maybe the hundredth time, that not everything was about him. But for once, Robert was right that this partly was.

“You don't know that this won't make things better,” Aaron said, shaking his head, and turning back to the cab.

“Aaron, please – you have to stay,” Robert pleaded.

“Why?” Aaron demanded.

“Because I love you!” Robert finally admitted. He breathed out slowly, with relief that he could finally say it, and didn't give a fuck that there were people around them who were watching the spectacle like Jeremy Kyle trash.

“You do?” Aaron searched Robert's eyes. Surely, he wouldn't go so far as to lie about that to keep him here.

“Yeah,” Robert said with a nod, smiling even without knowing if this would keep Aaron here. They loved each other and for a moment he just wanted to bask in that, in one good thing that had come out of all this, that possibly made it all worth it.

“Look,” he finally continued, remembering the more urgent task at hand. “I meant it that I'll try harder. I'll be there for you,” he said, putting his hands to Aaron's face again. “No matter what. Those people do not come first any more, not ever. And I won't treat people like shit. What we have, we can work on it. I'll prove myself-”

“Shut up,” Aaron interrupted, leaning up and taking Robert's lips in his. Closing his eyes to anyone around them, Aaron placed his hand on Robert's shoulder, who deepened the kiss and slowly pushed him back against the cab.

“So-” Robert began, when they finally broke apart, in part due to the cab driver's loud coughing.

“I'm staying,” Aaron said with a smile. “'Cuz I love you too, you idiot.”


End file.
